1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to call screening and more particularly to the hands free management of a telephone call.
2. Description of the Related Art
Call screening relates to the deferral of a telephone call until such time as the called party can decide whether or not to answer the telephone call. Typically, called parties manual undertake call screening simply by monitoring an answering machines handling of an incoming telephone call to determine the identity of the calling party. To that end, the called party relies upon the calling party leaving a voice message so as to provide identifying information to the called party. Manual call screening can be ineffective, however, in view of newer voice mail technologies which do not provide for a separate telephone answering device through which a called party can monitor an incoming telephone call.
Voice mail technologies have been applied not only to ordinary telephone networks, but also to pervasive telephony including cellular telephones. Notwithstanding, call screening remains an important aspect of pervasive telephony, in particular where the cost of a telephone call can far exceed that of a telephone call through a conventional telephone network. Consequently, call screening can be performed manually in such circumstances through the use of caller ID functionality known to those skilled in the art. Where a called party manually screens a telephone call through caller ID, the called party simply views the caller ID information through the telephone itself, or through a specially configured caller ID device. Based upon the caller's identify displayed in the telephone, the called party can choose whether or not to answer the telephone call.
To effectively screen a telephone call using caller ID technology, a called party must actively handle and view the display of either the telephone handset or external caller ID device so as to visually inspect the identification of the caller. In this regard, the visual inspection of a telephone handset or external caller ID device can prove difficult in circumstances where the called party is pre-occupied, such as when the called party is operating a vehicle, or when the hands of the called party are holding other objects. To address these concerns, some telephone devices include an audible indication of a callers ID. Nevertheless, the mere audible indication of a caller's ID does not relieve the called party from physically handling the telephone handset when choosing to answer a telephone call.
Several centralized services have become available in which telephone calls destined for a called party are intercepted and screened prior to the connection of the telephone call to the called party. Specifically, switch applications can compare the identity of the calling party to a list of pre-specified telephone numbers to determine which calls are to be routed to voice mail, and which calls are to ring through to the called party. This switch-centric routing can be helpful in particular where the pre-specified telephone numbers include a generic determination that any call originating from an unidentifiable caller should be treated as a call to be routed to voice mail. As a result, switch-centric call screening can be an effective tool against unwanted telemarketing activities.
Still, switch-centric call screening does not permit real-time caller intervention in the screening process. Specifically, all screening determinations are based on a pre-specified list of calling party identities. In consequence, the called party cannot in real-time select which calls to answer and which calls to route to voice mail. Moreover, in the switch-centric call screening paradigm, calls which ring through to the called party do not relieve the called party from handling the telephone handset. Again, in many circumstances it can be inconvenient if not outright dangerous to handle an incoming telephone call—especially where the called party concurrently operates a vehicle.